Chapter Text
The rain, the rain was something Andre had come to be familiar with. Andre was one with a lot of energy, and being forced inside most of the time due to his lack of waterproof features was not something he could easily endure. Collin reluctantly let him outside occasionally, forcing a raincoat into his hands. He liked the days he got to go out with Collin, the raincoat always smelled like him, and that brought an odd comfort to Andre. Collin always claimed the only reason he would accompany Andre out, or lend him his stuff was because fixing him after a crash was too complicated for him. But at least in Sidi's opinion it was because Collin “cared” for him. That was a foreign concept to Andre. Sure the admins made sure he was running smoothly, giving him praise when he got better and better scores. But there was never care in their voices, they only cared that Andre kept improving. Andre didn't think he'd care for anyone before. Besides Assimilation, he and Assim had a short time together, and while the emotions he felt were complicated and unnatural, from what Collin had told him, he cared for Assimilation. But Assimilation wasn't here anymore. Andre didn't know where he was. And while he had mostly recovered, every once in a while Andre found himself looking around expecting to see wisps of black behind trees, or his activities to be interrupted by abrupt teleportations to random dimensions. Well now it was quiet, and Andre was slowly learning to accept that quiet. It had been a struggle, trying to get him to not speedrun small mundane tasks, Collin had been correcting him and assisting him every step of the way.
Collin
What was Collin to him? Collin called him a roommate, but in a good mood he was considered a friend. But Collin always seemed off when he said it, Andre had in the past asked “what they were” without fully grasping what that statement implied, and Collin had seemed quite flustered. Andre couldn't decipher how he felt about Collin, he felt all the things his chat and Collin told him a friend would, but it was the other emotions that confused him. He got nervous and restless when Collin left him for too long, while talking to him his processing seemed to slow down, and he easily got distracted during tasks. Sidi seemed to know what all of this was, but the concept of,
“Love”
,was incredibly unnatural to him. In fact, it should be physically impossible with his programming. He didn't know when it happened or what bug invaded his systems that allowed him to do this. To feel such an odd and strange emotion. It seems the admins, as hard as they tried, always failed to make something non-sentient.
Soupbegone: Andre what are we doing why are we just pondering bro
Soupbegone: time loss
Sidisquish: can't we just relax sometimes, he's always going so fast it's ok to take a break
Conzercheez: Relax for once soup
Andre watched as the small chatbox in the corner smoothly pumped out messages. Ego eventually joined in, and even Fear popped in for a second to say he enjoyed the quiet. His chat was obviously a part of him, but they all had their own personalities and beliefs it was almost jarring. He heard them talk about what life looked like for them, confined to a single small room, always compelled to stare at their screen. That's why it took so long for them to realize they, well, weren't real. They had a whole situation with Conzer trying to open his door or tab out of the stream on his “computer” and that hadn't ended well. Andre paused his thoughts as he heard the door creak open behind him. He turned around and watched as Collin pulled his hat off and threw it to the ground somewhere near him.
“Oh my fucking God if I have to deal with these stupid entities ONE MORE TIME and only my God if it doesn't stop raining right now I'm gonna start throwing shit*
Andre couldn't help but make the smallest giggle at Collins immediate anger, (it wasn't much of a giggle more of a small mechanical sigh) but nonetheless Collin chucked his raincoat at him in anger anyway. Andre knew Collin wasn't particularly mad at him, he just liked to put on a front. Andre's tail absentmindedly began to swing back and forth faster once Collin arrived. It was a behavior that had become common, and Collin was surely starting to notice. Andre saw the way Collins' eyes swung back and forth to follow his tail; he had once commented that Andre acted a bit like a cat. Andre honestly didn't mind that comparison, and to be fair it wasn't wrong. Ever since he got better at “relaxing” he would find himself curling up in random places in the house. He would follow Collin around everywhere, no matter how mundane the task he was doing was. And on multiple occasions he felt the strong impulse to lay his head on Collins lap, but refrained for fear of being immediately thrown off.
“Andre, are you listening to me?”
Collin stared at him with a displeased look on his face and hands on his hips. Andre just stared back at him and Collins' upset face seemed to falter.
“Stop- stop staring at me dude”
Andre swore he could see the faintest bit of red creep along Collins face.
“Anyway as i was saying we cant go out for the next couple days, it's gonna be like thunder storming, I guess that might be my fault for pissing that guy off, but he fucking started it dude”
Andre just nodded and looked back at the window, the rain had already started to come down harder, and he could hear the sound it hitting the roof.
It was going to be a long couple of days